My real name is Philip Parker. I am 36 years old.
For the last 9 years I have worked as a freelance software engineer, working
on embedded systems such as airborne telephone exchanges, emergency service control rooms,
ISDN test equipment, supermarket scale networks, GSM mobile phones, and Digital TV (DTB)
broadcasting systems.
The work has lead me to live and work all over the UK. I am currently settled in Southampton, where my next job will most probably be a permanent one. I'm just sick of moving around all the time.
I was born on 5th March 1965 in London, England.
For those of you who are of an astrological disposition, that makes me a
Pisces Snake.
I lived in St Albans, Herts, until I was 5, when my family moved to Swansea,
in South Wales.
I attended Tycoch Junior School, and then
Olchfa
Comprehensive School in Swansea.
I gained 7 'A' levels, and 1 'S' level (Distinction in Physics).
I went to work for GPT for a couple of years after Uni, but found
the atmosphere in an old fashioned British engineering company
utterly stifling.
I resigned and went to live in Munich for a few months. I was fortunate
enough to be there when Germany won the 1990 World Cup (and YES, they
take England v Germany football matches every bit as seriously as we do!).
Much as I liked Germany, their attitude to work and the professional life is a damned more serious than it is over here, and it became apparent that if I wanted a software job over there, then I'd have to be recruited from over here.
I came back to the UK, and worked for Siemens in Poole, on a site that had previously belonged to Plessey. I liked the German attitude of getting a foot in the door of a niche market and developing it. (I was working on traffic guidance systems.)
After a couple of years of this, I decided there was more money to be made freelancing, and it would give me broader experience, than working in the same place all the time.
Well you certainly do get about as a contractor. It's all documented on my CV, so I'll not repeat it here.
One thing I can say about the contracting life though, is that it exacts a price personally. You don't notice it at first, but if you have to move on every year or so, then it can be difficult to plan your social life. I've managed this by taking long breaks off when I can, although this of course reduces the monetary advantage.
I'm personally ready now to quit the nomadic lifestyle, and apply
the broad experience I have in a permanent job.
I am hoping I can achieve this in the Southampton area, which
has most things you'd want from an urban area, with the added
advantages that, being a sea-port it's quite cosmopolitan,
and the New Forrest is nearby.
My original nick-name was Peejay (as in PJ Parker), often abbreviated to Peej. One evening a friend's (new) wife confided in me that she had wondered why everyone was calling me 'peaches' ........... which so amused me that I now answer to it.
"Everyone complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it." -- Anon
"Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it." -- Mahatma Gandhi